Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Card Review (2026): Benefits, Credits and Who It’s For

Card image: Chase · Part of my Credit Card Reviews · Last checked: October 14, 2026

Card benefits change often, and this page may be out of date by the time you read it. Always check the bank’s page and your card’s guide to benefits for the current terms before you rely on a benefit.

The Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier is the middle of Chase’s three personal Southwest cards: a $149 annual fee, 6,000 anniversary points, 3x on Southwest, and since the 2025 refresh a free first checked bag and Group 5 boarding for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation.

It’s $50 more than the Plus for 3,000 more anniversary points, a free Preferred seat within 48 hours, a bigger promo code and some help toward A-List. Below is how it earns, what each credit takes, the protections in Chase’s own numbers, the application rules, the Companion Pass angle, and my verdict on whether the middle card makes sense.

Jump to: Highlights · Earning · Credits · Bags, boarding and perks · Insurance · Application rules · My take · The catch · Keep it? · Offer history · Quick Answers

The highlights

• 3x Southwest, 2x grocery stores and restaurants (first $8,000 a year combined), 3x Lyft through 12/31/2027, 1x elsewhere
• Top tier: free first checked bag for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation, tied for the most companions of any card I review (United’s cards cover one companion, the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select four)
• Group 5 boarding for the whole reservation and a free Preferred seat within 48 hours of departure, when available
• 6,000 anniversary points and a 15% flight promo code each anniversary year (not valid on Basic fares)
• 1,500 tier qualifying points toward A-List for every $5,000 you spend
• 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each calendar year; points earned on the card also count toward the pass
• 25% back on inflight drinks and Wi-Fi, including authorized users’ purchases
• $10 monthly Instacart credit while you have Instacart+ (3 months free), DashPass plus $10 off one non-restaurant DoorDash order a quarter, through 12/31/2027
• Lost luggage, baggage delay, secondary rental car coverage, purchase protection and extended warranty; no foreign transaction fees

How it earns

Category	Rate	Caps and fine print
Southwest Airlines purchases	3x	Flights, inflight, Southwest gift cards and Getaways packages; cruises, charters and cargo excluded
Grocery stores and restaurants	2x	First $8,000 in combined purchases each anniversary year, then 1x
Lyft rides in the Lyft app	3x	Through 12/31/2027; gift cards and car rentals excluded
Everything else	1x	—

Southwest points are worth roughly 1.3 cents each toward Southwest fares by Upgraded Points’ estimate, they don’t expire, and they stay in Southwest (they don’t transfer to other programs). Every point you earn on the card also counts toward the Companion Pass, and every $5,000 you spend adds 1,500 tier qualifying points toward A-List.

Credits and how to use them

Chase lists a handful of partner perks on this card. Only the anniversary points are automatic; the rest depend on services you may not use.

Credit	Amount	How often	Where / how	The catch
Anniversary points	6,000 points	Each account anniversary	Automatic	Worth roughly $78 toward Southwest fares. The easiest benefit on the card.
15% flight promo code	15% off the base fare	Each anniversary year	Code sent on your anniversary, valid one year	Base fare only; not valid on Basic fares, group travel or Southwest Vacations.
Inflight purchases	25% back	Ongoing	Statement credit on Southwest inflight drinks and Wi-Fi, including authorized users’ purchases	—
Instacart credit	$10 a month	Monthly	One $10+ Instacart order while you’re an Instacart+ member	Only the first 3 months of Instacart+ are free; after that it renews at $99 a year unless you cancel, so this is only worth it if you’d pay for Instacart+ anyway. Through 12/31/2027; unused months don’t roll over.
DoorDash non-restaurant promo	$10 off one order a quarter	Calendar quarter	Grocery, convenience and other non-restaurant DoorDash orders with DashPass	Needs its own non-restaurant order each quarter. Through 12/31/2027.
DashPass membership	12 months free	Once	Activate between 2/1/2025 and 12/31/2027	Renews at the monthly rate afterward unless you cancel.

Bags, boarding and other perks

• Free first checked bag for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation, on Southwest-operated flights, as long as your Rapid Rewards number is on the reservation. Chase puts the savings at $45 per bag each way. Authorized users aren’t eligible.
• Group 5 boarding for you and up to 8 people on the same reservation. Since Southwest moved to assigned seats, everyone boards in groups 1 to 8: A-List members and Choice Extra fares go first, cardmembers are in Group 5 unless they qualify for something earlier, and Basic fares board last in Group 8. With assigned seats this mostly decides how much overhead bin space is left.
• Preferred seat within 48 hours: you can pick a Preferred seat for free within 48 hours of departure, when one is available, for you and up to 8 people on the reservation. The Priority gives you a Preferred seat at booking instead.
• Tier qualifying points: 1,500 toward A-List for every $5,000 in purchases each year. A-List boards in Group 1 and gets other perks, but you’d still need a lot of Southwest flying to get there.
• 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points each calendar year (by January 31, or within 30 days of opening the account). The Companion Pass lets one person you choose fly with you for just the taxes (from $5.60 each way) on every Southwest flight you buy or book with points. It takes 135,000 qualifying points or 100 one-way flights in a calendar year and lasts the rest of that year and all of the next; card points and the welcome bonus count, bought or transferred points don’t.
• Southwest perks for everyone: no change fees (you pay any fare difference), no blackout dates on reward seats, and points that don’t expire.

Insurance and protections

Benefit	What the bank says
Auto rental collision damage waiver	Up to $60,000 for theft and collision damage, secondary in the U.S. (primary outside the U.S. or if you have no other insurance), rentals up to 31 days; you have to decline the rental company’s CDW. This comes from the guide to benefits; the card page doesn’t list it.
Trip delay	None
Trip cancellation / interruption	None
Baggage delay	Up to $100 a day for up to 3 days after a 6-hour delay One-way and award tickets: Yes to both: the guide covers round-trip or one-way fares paid all or in part with the card or its rewards, so putting the award taxes on the card counts.
Lost luggage	Up to $3,000 per covered traveler ($2,000 per bag and $10,000 per trip for New York residents) One-way and award tickets: Yes to both, same rule as baggage delay.
Travel accident insurance	Up to $500,000 on common carrier trips when all or part of the fare is on the card (per the guide)
Roadside assistance	Pay-per-use dispatch at a pre-negotiated price, not free
Purchase protection	120 days, up to $500 per item (90 days for New York residents)
Extended warranty	Adds one year to U.S. warranties of three years or less

The card page lists lost luggage, baggage delay, purchase protection and extended warranty. The rental car, travel accident and roadside terms, and the one-way and award ticket rules, come from the Guide to Benefits that the card page links to (Visa Signature, effective 10/01/24). Claims need receipts and the airline’s delay or loss report.

For how this compares with other cards, see my card travel benefits comparison.

Application rules for this card

• You can’t get this card if you have any Southwest personal card open now (Plus, Premier or Priority), and the bonus isn’t available if you received a new cardmember bonus on any Southwest personal card in the last 24 months. Chase’s page says this doesn’t apply to the Southwest business cards, so you can hold one personal and one business Southwest card (Chase rules).
• Chase’s 5/24 rule applies: you’ll be denied if you’ve opened 5 or more personal cards from any bank in the last 24 months.
• Because of the one-card rule, pick the Southwest card you want before you apply; you can’t collect bonuses on the Plus, Premier and Priority one after another.

The full rules for every bank are in my credit card application rules guide.

My take

A $149 fee minus the 6,000 anniversary points (roughly $78) makes it about $71 a year in my eyes, which is only around $10 more than the Plus once you count the extra anniversary points. So it isn’t a bad card; it just doesn’t have a clear reason to exist. The extras over the Plus are a Preferred seat within 48 hours, a 15% instead of 10% promo code, 3x instead of 2x on Southwest and 1,500 tier points per $5,000, none of which changes much for most people.

If the free bag and boarding are what you want, I would get the Plus; if you want a good seat at booking, I would get the Priority. The Premier makes sense mostly if you spend a lot at grocery stores and restaurants (2x on up to $8,000 a year) and want those points to count toward the Companion Pass, which takes 135,000 qualifying points in a calendar year; the welcome bonus and the yearly 10,000-point boost both count.

In any case, I personally would hate to sign up at 55,000 points when 85,000 was available as recently as July 2026.

The catch

It sits between the Plus and the Priority without a strong reason to pick it: the bag and boarding perks that matter most are the same on the $99 Plus, and the 2x on groceries and restaurants stops after $8,000 a year combined.

Southwest’s 2025 and 2026 changes (bag fees for everyone else, assigned seats, Basic fares that board last) made the card perks more useful, but they also made Southwest points less of a slam dunk than they used to be. The bag benefit only works on Southwest-operated flights with your Rapid Rewards number on the reservation.

The Instacart and DoorDash perks only help if you already pay for or use those services, and the Instacart credit needs a $99-a-year membership after the free 3 months. Chase, like other banks with similar hard-to-use credits, hopes that you forget to use these benefits.

Keep it after year one?

The fee to me is $149 minus the 6,000 anniversary points (about $78), which is roughly $71. If you fly Southwest with bags at least once a year, that’s easy to justify. If you mostly want the bag, the Plus does that for $50 less a year; Chase doesn’t offer a no-fee Southwest card, so ask Chase what it can switch you to before you cancel.

Offer history

Recent offers, per Upgraded Points’ offer history: 85,000 points after $2,000 (May to July 2, 2026), a Companion Pass through February 2027 plus 40,000 points after $5,000 (February to March 2026), 85,000 points after $3,000 (October to December 2025), and 100,000 points after $5,000 (July to September 2025, the highest).

Quick Answers

Last checked: October 14, 2026. Card terms change often, so confirm on the bank’s page before you apply. There are no affiliate or referral links on this site, ever; links go to the bank’s own page.